13 pin connection...

[Marky 1971]

Hi all,
Has anyone had problems with their 13 pin connection?
The road lights are all good, but sometimes the fridge won’t work on battery. It’s not the fridge that’s at fault; when the problem arises, the control panel works as though the car is not hooked up. The problem is intermittent. Baffled.

 

[Damian]

The fridge will never work on a battery.
It will only work when connected to the car with the engine running and producing over 12v from the alternator.

The fridge control panel is supplied by a secondary feed and is permanently live.

 

[Marky 1971]

The fridge will never work on a battery.
It will only work when connected to the car with the engine running and producing over 12v from the alternator.

The fridge control panel is supplied by a secondary feed and is permanently live.

Hi Damian. The problem arises intermittently when the car is hooked up and running. The running lights always work, but sometimes, even though the car is hooked up and running, the control panel works as though the car isn’t hooked up, and so the fridge doesn’t work. When it does work properly, the connection is very stable, and will be reliable for the whole journey.

 

[JezzerB]

May be an intelligent alternator-some of these cut off charging when demand from battery isn't there-or maybe it isn't so intelligent!! You could of course have faulty wiring/relays-etc?

 

[Marky 1971]

Jezzer, you may be into something with the “not so intelligent “ alternator. The car does only charge as it sees necessary. I would have thought that this system would be overridden when hooked up, but maybe it isn’t..

 

[JTQ]

The very valid point being made by "Damian & JezzerB", is that depending on the car's wiring, the fact that the engine is running is in itself not ensuring power is switched to the fridge. Even if smart alternators are not specifically involved, voltage sensing devices may be.

IMO, the days of effective car powered caravan fridge operation, if it ever was the case, are over, if not beaten by that aspect, beaten by the wire sizing.

 

[Beehpee]

If your car is not new enough to have intelligent voltage sensing, could it just be the alternator isn’t in best condition and it just simply needs plenty of revs to get it to produce enough to kick in the fridge circuit, I have to test cars wiring for live wires and more importantly ignition wiring, I’m working on fairly well used older cars so probably yours has got intelligent voltage, but just in case, often I start the engine and while it’s ticking over it barely gets above 12 volts, if your looking at the control panel your car must be stationary as your in the caravan so car will probably just be ticking over, maybe use a multi meter and check what voltage is being put out by your alternator while ticking over.

BP